Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 - Page 99

RECONNAISSANCE SQUADRON
(Photo by Baz Ratner, Reuters)
Soldiers from 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, fire a mortar during a firefight
with Taliban forces 18 April 2012 in Zhary District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
teams, the scouts lead the infantry battalions to their
secondary objectives while the dismounted troop pushes
further out into the security zone.
Synchronized Reconnaissance
During the assault phase and subsequent phases,
the squadron commander synchronizes the squadron’s maneuver forces with ISR assets external to the
BCT, providing priorities and ensuring that the joint
force commander’s priority intelligence requirements
are answered by phase, collaborating with the brigade
intelligence officer to analyze enemy activity, and adjusting reconnaissance assets accordingly. Sustainment
is facilitated through the squadron’s mission command
node. The squadron may need to remain self-sustaining
for at least forty-eight to seventy-two hours, or until the
assault force secures the lodgment and brings in resupply
by aircraft. Once sustainment is secured on the airhead,
resupply can reach the reconnaissance squadron through
low-cost, low-altitude (LCLA) aerial resupply.22
The joint force commander will assume risk by
employing the reconnaissance squadron in this fashion.
The two mounted troops and the dismounted troop
MILITARY REVIEW March-April 2016
will, possibly, operate outside the range of indirect fire
support from the airfield or naval gunships. While the
mounted troops establish screen lines and expand the
security zone, and the \